The Defensive Player of the Year race wasn’t much of a race this season. Rather, it was Victor Wembanyama dashing so far ahead of everyone else that he couldn’t even see the competition when he looked back over his shoulder. The Spurs star is currently averaging 3.1 blocks and 1 steal per game, and every player in the league will think twice about attacking the rim if he’s anywhere remotely close to it.
Then, he left the Spurs’ game against the Philadelphia 76ers with a rib injury and is now in danger of not reaching the 65-game mark. That would make him ineligible for any awards and completely scramble the Defensive Player of the Year voting just before the end of the season.
If Wembanyama isn’t eligible, Scottie Barnes could quickly find himself getting more votes than he would have otherwise. That, in turn, could change his standing in the league. It’s one thing to finish a season with an All-Defensive honor. It’s another to get that AND finish in, let’s say, the top five or top three in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Depending on some voters’ top five, Barnes could also move from second to first team all-defense if Wembanyama is ineligible.
If Wembanyama isn’t eligible, the award will probably go to Chet Holmgren, who has been playing excellent defense for an Oklahoma City Thunder team that has the best defensive rating in the league.
Scottie Barnes has had a great defensive season
The Raptors rank sixth in defensive rating, and their size and length bother a lot of teams. The backbone of all of that is Scottie Barnes. He averages 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game and leads the league in clutch points.
Barnes also defends multiple positions, giving the Raptors a lot of versatility on that end of the floor.
Seeing him on an All-Defensive team and Defensive Player of the Year ballots should be no surprise.
The 65-game rule is receiving a lot of criticism
Victor Wembanyama may lose out on an award he very much deserves because of a rule meant to battle load management among stars by just one or two games. He played 63 games this season.
Wembanyama isn’t the only player who is just narrowly losing out on awards because of the 65-game rule. Cade Cunningham, for example, was very much making his case for an All-NBA First Team selection and the MVP award before he suffered a collapsed lung in mid-March. By then, he had already played 61 of the Pistons’ 68 games. He hasn’t been able to play since, but also doesn’t qualify for the season-ending injury exception because he didn’t reach the 62-game mark that requires.
Luka Doncic might also lose out on an All-NBA selection and MVP votes now that he suffered a hamstring injury (probably not a season-ending injury). The thing is, he has already played 64 games, and two of the games he missed were because he wanted to be there for the birth of his daughter.
As a result of those cases, the 65-game rule has been questioned a lot.